Research Interests

Biography, Education and Training

I received my Ph.D. in 2006 from the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I joined the faculty of the Department of Latin American and Latino/a Studies at UC Santa Cruz in 2010 after having completed a two year University of California Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Women's Studies Department at the University of California, Riverside. Prior to the postdoctoral position, I was an assistant professor of Sociology at Connecticut College and a lecturer for the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

My parents were born and raised in Lima, Peru and moved to the United States in the 1960s. I was born in upstate New York, and we moved to Camarillo, California when I was about three years old. I lived in Camarillo until I left for Santa Clara University. I moved to Santa Cruz from Los Angeles in 2010.

In January 2017, I launched a news and public affairs radio show called Voces Criticas/Critical Voices on KZSC, 88.1 FM. This weekly radio program offers an informative discussion of the news (local, national, and international) and/or social issues facing and of interest to communities of color by engaging in conversation with public intellectuals, activists, artists, and other community members. Please check the KZSC schedule for air time as it changes every quarter.